Asghar Farhadi, the Iranian director, unfolds his intricate moral thrillers with the precision of a bomb disposal expert. The audience watches in fear of the plot going off in its face. Farhadi is best known for A Separation, an Oscar winner in 2012, though I rated the one before, About Elly, even higher. Like those films, The Salesman peeks beneath an apparently sturdy middle-class unit to find hairline cracks and flaws, partly the result of its uneasy relationship with a repressive government. Those cracks become alarmingly physical in the film’s opening scene as a quaking Tehran apartment building is evacuated in panic: the construction diggers next door have undermined its foundations.
Among the fleeing occupants are a married couple, Emad (Shahab Hosseini) and Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti), the lead actors in a production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. One of the cast recommends them an apartment to rent, and the couple move in. “For once it looks like we’re in luck,” says Emad, speaking too soon.
16 March 2017, The Tablet
Domestic fault lines
The Salesman director: Asghar Farhadi
Get Instant Access
Continue Reading
Register for free to read this article in full
Subscribe for unlimited access
From just £30 quarterly
Complete access to all Tablet website content including all premium content.
The full weekly edition in print and digital including our 179 years archive.
PDF version to view on iPad, iPhone or computer.
Already a subscriber? Login